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Comment by bradwestness | Hacker News Reader

It's going to take a while, but they are definitely going to keep moving in that direction. I think it's safe to expect future versions of Windows to continually de-emphasize and virtualize the desktop (much like what they did with DOS). Remember how they almost didn't release a version of Visual Studio Express 2012 that could target the desktop?

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If they do this - and they have always wanted to - it will open the door for massive development on other platforms. I say this as a Microsoft developer. After looking at what's coming, both in the mediocrity of the upcoming OS releases and the push to put everything behind a MSFT wall, I've been actively looking at whether we should be moving primarily to Linux.

The only thing keeping me on Windows is the games. If Steam was on Linux with a strong library to back it up, I'd switch right now.

Games, document formats, workforce familiarity, and pre-existing infrastructure (Exchange, bureaucratic corporate IT depts, etc).

Still a fairly large hurdle to overcome, but I'm hoping Valve can at least break down the games one.

Document formats don't seem to be a problem any more. Back when MS switched to .docx people I knew continued using .doc to maintain compatibilty with old versions. I actually got support for the 2007 formats before most of my windows using friends. As long as you change your default file format to the MS one, I don't think you'll run into issues on that front.

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